Hukarere girls gain valuable work experience at Hawke’s Bay DHB
Information and Communication Technology students from Hukarere Girls’ College are gaining valuable work experience
while fulfilling an important role for the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board (HBDHB). As part of an asset management
programme, HBDHB is compiling a detailed register of all its assets, with students from Hukarere creating a database of
all equipment.
HBDHB facilities manager, Tony McKee, said it had proved to be a beneficial partnership between school and business.
“The girls are required to work in a variety of settings and interact with staff, as they move through every service
taking down the details of each piece of computer hardware in the organisation – and there are 700 PCs with details to
be captured!
Head of Hukarere’s ICT faculty, Michael Peterson, said the girls involved in the programme were putting the theory they
had learnt in class in to practice.
Caron Taana, who heads the school’s English department and is Dean and Careers advisor, says the Year 11 – 13 girls
(5th- 7th form) are learning work ethics, communication skills, and the work is being carried out under the school’s
Gateway Programme which is designed to smooth the transition from school to the workplace. “As well as the basic
data-inputting, the girls are learning how to problem-solve, prioritise, hone their communication skills and manage
their time. Feedback from the students has been very positive – they’re absolutely loving it and have become more
confident in the hospital setting.
“Their work is being assessed by the District Health Board, and to date they have been very pleased with the girls’
performance,” Ms Taana said.
Tony McKee said the project would eventually involve creating asset registers of the Board’s equipment in every
facility, including Wairoa, CHB and the Chatham Islands, and he would be looking to work in a similar way with local
schools.